


Rearview

by thatotherperv



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Buffy s1 / zomg they were young, Canonical Character Death, Episode Tag, Gen, a moment in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-06
Updated: 2008-07-06
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:57:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatotherperv/pseuds/thatotherperv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy looks back on her first day at Sunnydale High (sort of literally)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rearview

**Author's Note:**

> written for fantas_magoria's Welcome to the Hellmouth week. Whee!
> 
> (I think this was one of the last things I wrote in the Buffy fandom, and it makes me about 10 kinds of bittersweet to reread it as I upload)
> 
> Original post [here](http://thatotherperv.livejournal.com/229196.html)

  
There was something Buffy never told her friends about Heaven. It was so embarrassingly cliché, and anyway, she'd never been the type of girl to go to the movies alone and spoil the ending for everybody else. It was totally gonna trip Xander out when he got there, and she hoped to be nearby when he got to 1998 because she couldn't wait for the running commentary on the time with the stuff in that place where they'd—

Well. Anyway. Fast times at Ridgemont High.

So here's how it really happened: her life flashed before her eyes. Not when the ground was rushing up at her, because then all she'd been able to think was "Oh, shit!" But after she'd landed in the great beyond. It wasn't really a flash so much as Hi-Def Surround Sound, like the Ghost of Christmas Past threw an orgy and invited all her unfortunate wardrobe choices and hairstyles through the years. And supposedly she only got the good stuff, the cream of the memory crop, but she was pretty sure there was a sick sense of humor behind it all because getting hit with the whammy and almost marrying Spike? Not her shiniest moment.

The big blast from the past was her first day in Sunnydale. She had to cringe, just looking at all of them.

The bangs weren't totally unfortunate, but baby!Buffy had a horrifying knack for making her torso look completely stunted—such was the tragedy of life before the advent of the low-rise waistline. And if her skirts got any shorter, she might as well print "ho-bag" on her forehead and be done with it.

Willow was in need of some serious…something, her mom had fluffy poodle hair, and the color of Cordelia's slacks made her eyes bleed, but Xander? He was sort of a total (dorky) fox back then, and she couldn't believe she hadn't jumped on that while she had the chance. On the other hand, she was glad she hadn't because…ew. Woulda been like fucking her brother.

(Wait, hold up, was she allowed to think about near-incesty Relations in God's Country? She hoped there weren't mind-reading bouncer angels poised to kick her ass out).

Flutie was a total douche ( _service_ her _needs_?), though he probably didn't deserve the whole eaten by hyena-people thing.

One thing she knew for sure is that Giles was lucky she came along and unbunched his very British undies. Could he have been wound _any_ tighter? Following her to the Bronze like a skeezy old stalker. In _tweed_.

Buffy remembered that year as a totally conflicted, teen-angsty hate-my-destiny time, but it was all pretty funny in retrospect. The only thing remotely hurty was Angel. And how did she miss the writing on _that_ wall. Mr. Black-and-White, Too-Smooth, Skulks-in-the-Dark. He promised not to bite. Puh-lease. Over-trying, much? He'd made her totally itchy and on the defensive, but at the time she just thought it was his magnetic hotness and jerkitude.

Giles was right, her Spidey-Senses were very much un-honed.

At the time Angel was so _not_ on the menu, but she put that cross on right then and wore it every day. She should have known that meant trouble. It had to be love, because giant kitchy crucifixes were so 1994.


End file.
